More Interviews

Matias Myllyrinne – Business Director, Remedy Games

First, can you comment on the argument that rising costs in exhibiting and planning for E3 has cause this retrenchment of the show?

I think this is indeed the case. The expenditure for "a strong" e3 showing is huge. Also, look at this in the context of a consolidating industry i.e. fewer real publishers... The top firms scan get their own events into play and people will be there. It is not like media will need to go to 10 events anymore:-)

E3 was the single biggest worldwide media even for the video and PC game industry, bringing in attention from a ton of both game enthusiast and mainstream media to cover the show. Without such a large event in the US for 2007, do you think that could impact the attention that the video and PC game industry gets from consumers and gamers?

The impact will not be too large. It will take some time to settle if true - but something will be worked out to fill the vacuum.

Do you think the people who exhibit at E3 will save their money and spend less on marketing and advertising as a whole or will the money that was previously earmarked for E3 be used in other ways?

Some will just save money and get better EPS figures... Weight this in light of recent cost cuttings at many publishers (Take Two, Activision and EA all did cuts). Frankly, it would be a lot easier for me in their shoes to cut back on the millions for e3 vs, the millions needed for next gen dev.

Do you believe that this retrenchment is just temporary or will other events in the US, including CES, the Game Developers Conference and Digital/Life, become bigger and more important without having E3 be such a big presence in the industry?

When ECTS faded, Leipzig bloomed in Europe (London was expensive and Germany less so). So... eventually something will come in. GDC is already a mini E3 for publisher-developer stuff and middleware guys. CES may be the place for large games. However, it is not like 20 titles from each publisher would get attention there.

Pete Hines: Public Relations Manager – Bethesda Softworks

First, can you comment on the argument that rising costs in exhibiting and planning for E3 has cause this retrenchment of the show?

It’s certainly not cheap to exhibit at E3. We’ve felt for a while that the biggest issue was less with the costs and more with the attendance. It had gotten to the point where it was a little too loose and out-of-control for my tastes. From my standpoint, the cost complaints I’ve seen were more the result of everyone trying to outdo the other guy. It’s not like it’s mandated for anyone how big their booth has to be or how much they have to spend on a party. Our approach has always been to do what we feel is necessary and let the other folks do what they will.

E3 was the single biggest worldwide media even for the video and PC game industry, bringing in attention from a ton of both game enthusiast and mainstream media to cover the show. Without such a large event in the US for 2007, do you think that could impact the attention that the video and PC game industry gets from consumers and gamers?

Since we don’t know the show will look like next year at this particular moment, I think it’s hard to say. When you get really big it attracts more attention on a national and worldwide level. There’s certainly a chance that if you cut back a good bit on the size of the show and who can attend, your interest will get cut back as well. At the same time, the industry itself is only getting bigger and more popular regardless of what E3 does. So if there’s a main show each year dedicated to video games, I would still think it’d get a pretty good amount of attention no matter what.

Do you think your company and others who exhibit at E3 will save their money and spend less on marketing and advertising as a whole or will the money that was previously earmarked for E3 be used in other ways?

Again, it’s hard to say because I don’t know what the show will be like at this point or what we’ll be doing. Certainly if it gets scaled back to the point where fewer press folks are showing up and we aren’t seeing all the folks we used to see, then we’re going to have to spend additional resources to reach those folks in some other way. But marketing and advertising to the consumer is different than getting your game in front of retailers and buyers and the press so they can see firsthand what you have.

There’s still a need for that, a need to get products out in front of a lot of people who cover the industry so they can see what it is you’re doing instead of reading about it or watching some clips on the Internet. As a guy who has attended more than once as both an exhibitor and a member of the press, E3 still has meaning and value. It just needs some improvements.

Do you believe that this retrenchment is just temporary or will other events in the US, including CES, the Game Developers Conference and Digital/Life become bigger and more important without having E3 be such a big presence in the industry.

Honestly, I don’t really know. I can’t see it being temporary unless whatever gets tried in 2007 is a disaster and folks say “go back to the way it was!” We’ll see. Or, it’ll scale way back and then folks will start one-upping each other again and we’ll be right back to where we are now in 5 years.

Finally, is there anything else that your company wishes to say about the retrenchment of E3?

It’s going to be interesting to see what the long-term effects of this are going to be.